Consumer Guide
The Consumer Guide deals with all matter financial. Money is bound to figure in all your games, but you should not allow it to dominate proceedings in great detail. If money is tight, then you will want to keep a close track of what the players' characters are spending, but when the characters are wealthy, there is little point in making the players keep accounts to the very last penny. Coinage Money in the Old World is based upon three kinds of coin: the Gold Crown, the Silver Shilling, and the base metal Penny - usually made of bronze, copper or brass. Each coin weighs approximately an ounce and its value is determined by its weight. Every city - and many smaller towns - issue their own coinage, which is readily and universally accepted throughout the Old World (although coinage from smaller towns might only be readily accepted in its local area). Unusual town coinage will always be greeted with suspicion, which makes it unprofitable to forge. Although the coinage is varied in its origins, weight is a fairly reasonable determination of a coin's value. 1 Gold Crown = 20 Silver Shillings = 240 Brass Pennies 1 Silver Shilling = 12 Brass Pennies This is usually written as: 1 GC = 20/- = 240d A sum of money involving different coinage types is written as: 1 GC 12/6 - One Crown, twelve shillings, and sixpence 6/- - Six shillings only 12 GC 5/- - Twelve Crowns and five shillings 3d - Three pence only Currency Forgery In order to produce counterfeit coins, characters need coin dies from which to mint them. Real coin dies are very hard to get hold of, but the currency of the Old World is so varied that characters can get away with making their own. If it looks like a credible and respected coinage, so much the better. All of the mapped cities issue their own coins, all of which are universally acceptable. Smaller settlements do issue coins, but they are not always accepted and are often viewed with suspicion outside of their town of origin. In order to make a die set, a character must have the Art skill. Making a die set takes approximately a week. Minting coins from a die is relatively easy, but producing a credible metal from at least 25% gold and base metals requires the use of Numismatics and Chemistry or Metallurgy skills. A small workshop and furnace are also needed, but nothing so elaborate as a smithy. Two pounds and eight ounces of base metal added to 10 ounces of gold (10 Gold Crowns) will produce 50 coins with a face value of 50 GCs. It takes a whole day for two persons to mint 50 coins. A character working alone cannot successfully strike the coins, so any coins produced by one individual will be immediately recognisable as forgeries. Passing dud coins requires a successful Bluff test. Chances of success decrease by 5 for every day after the first transaction. Transactions over 10 coins decrease the bluff chance by -1% for each additional coin. So, an attempt to pass 23 GCs has a -13% modifier for the Bluff test. A failed bluff indicatesthat the counterfeit is spotted and the character will be challenged. The penalty for passing dud coins is indefinite incarceration. Goods And Services The Consumer Guide provides the gamesmaster with a list of goods and services, their typical costs, and their general availability. It is intended as an aid, not as a set of immutable rules - so feel free to change elements to suit individual scenarios. For instance, if your game is set in a mining community, it would be foolish for you to determine that the player characters cannot buy a pick-axe... The guide is divided into various categories of goods and services; these are: *Subsistence *Clothing *Armour *Weapons *Miscellaneous (carrying equipment, household items, tools, etc.) *Transport *Dwellings *Medical Attention All goods have a price and an encumbrance (where applicable) listed for them and are rated by their general availability: Very Rare - Rare - Scarce - Average - Common - Plentiful To use the guide, first look up the good or service the player character wishes to buy and make a note of its general availability. Then read across the table below and find the column matching the population size of the community (populations may be determined by the dictates of your campaign or according to the rules given in Settlement Patters Of The Old World). This will give a percentage chance for the good or service to be available locally. If the test is a failure, the commodity or service is not available and will not be so, until at least a week of game time has passed, when a further check may be made. Once you have determined the that a specific item or service is available in a given place, there is no need to check again to obtain further supplies. You may, however, want to draw the line at a reasonable point. For example, there is going to come a point where a player who has already bought six breastplates is going to have cleaned out a small village of that particular item... 'Subsistence' ♦ 3/- is the minimum required to remain healthy, but any character who has the money must spend 7/- per day on food or as much as is available up to 7/-. Even 7/- per day is hardly riotous living and player characters may be required to spend considerably more in order to maintain their social standing. 'Clothing' The prices given below are for clothes of average quality only. When purchasing clothes of better or worse quality, the following modifiers should be applied to the cost and the encumbrance should also be adjusted, if necessary (an elaborate ball gown is not going to be easy to carry!). Clothes do not count toward personal encumbrance when worn, but if carried in a backpack or sack, they have the listed encumbrance. 'Armour' ♦ Bestows no armour bonus if worn over mail coif. 'Weapons' 'Miscellaneous Items' 'Transport' 'Travel Costs' 'Dwellings' 'Medical Attention' Hiring Characters Sooner or later, most player characters find the need to hire an NPC specialist. It may be because they require a skill not possessed by a party member or because a forthcoming expedition requires extra swordarms or simply because they have more money than they know what to do with and have decided to hire a valet, jester, or general dogsbody. Hirelings fall into two general categories: skilled and unskilled. Unskilled HIrelings: Unskilled hirelings are often sought to perform menial tasks, such as carrying bags, digging ditches, etc. Unskilled hirelings are spread throughout the broad categories already discussed under Employment (i.e., Artisans, Entertainers, Labourers, or Servants). They may have completed more than one career, but often they are still in their basic career. However, the players' prime concern when hiring non-skilled NPCs is their basic profile and their personality. Such NPCs need not be generated in any detail and their wages, on average, will be as follows: Note: Entertainers would normally expect to earn addtional money from tips. Servants would have board and lodging provided. These are also the rates of pay that a player character could expect to earn. Some labouring jobs will also include bed and board, but this is usually deducted from the wages paid. In agrarian communities, it is usually to pay part of a character's wages in kind - as farm products (eggs, cheese, milk, cider, etc.). Skilled Hirelings: Skilled hirelings are usually sought to provide a skill that characters lack or to provide extra muscle on an adventure. Skilled hirelings have completed more than one career and are both harder to find and more expensive to hire than unskilled ones. When hiring these NPCs, it is their skills and career-related knowledge that interest the player characters. The average rate of pay and the availability of such characters varies according to the number of careers they have completed. Basic Wage Levels For Skilled Hirelings ♦ Payable only to hirelings who fight side-by-side with the PCs on an adventure. NPCs will usually hire themselves out at the rate given for their total number of careers, even if the hirers do not require all of those careers. Multi-career characters are, after all, quite powerful and probably have better things to do than hire themselves out at discount rates. Cash is payable either on a weekly basis or at the completion of an adventure. However, most NPCs expect an advance equivalent to a week's wages when they first hire on, especially if they need to buy special equipment. NPCs always make arrangements for cash to pass into the hands of relatives, tomb builders, or other beneficiaries. Such arrangements are made via the law or through another organisation and are enforced by the full power of such organisations. The Share is a payment in addition to the NPC's wage, to be made when the surviving adventurers divide up the treasure at the completion of the adventure. The number given represents the proportion of a single equal share. All booty, treasure, magical items, and other loot is subject to division, unless the players arrange otherwise when hiring the NPC. If the NPC's share is to exclude specific items, then they will expect a cash value instead, payable at the completion of the adventure. Shares are not payable in the event of the NPC's death. The payment of shares, of coures, only applies to hirelings who actually go on adventures with the player characters - an alchemist who stays in a laboratory, trying to transmute lead into gold, does not receive shares. A one-career character may be prepared to join a party in return for an equal share of booty rather than wages. If the total number of careers of all the players is over 10, then the hireling may be prepared to join a party for a ½ share; if over 20, for a ¼ share. Generating Hirelings The generation of hirelings is undertaken in the same way as for all NPCs, as discussed in Scenarios. It is suggested that the gamesmaster keeps a stock of NPCs ready to apply for any adventuring post offered by the players. In the case of unskilled hirelings, it is far more convenient to assume that they have average creature characteristics for their race. Trading The roads and waterways of The Empire are bustling with trade and adventurers will often have plenty of opportunities to do some trading. The following brief rules are designed to help you handle this eventuality, although you should feel free to amend and adapt things as you see fit. In any event, a calculator will probably prove invaluable! Buying In most cases, the carrier will actually buy a cargo at one end and sell it at the other, rather than simply being paid for carrying it. When the adventurers arrive at a place looking for cargo, there are four things that they will want to know: whether a cargo is available; what it is; how much there is; and how much it costs. 1. Availability of Goods To decide whether there is a cargo needing to be carried, refer to the Source of Wealth column on the Gazetteer of the Reikland. Any listing other than "subsistence" means that there is the possibility of a cargo of that type. "Trade" means that there may be a variety of goods available. Such 'bulk' goods are regarded as 'plentiful' and the base availability of a cargo is thus dependent on the size of the community: Community Size This base availability is modified according to the wealth of the place, taken from the Gazetteer, as follows: The final figure is the percentage chance of a cargo being available. Roll D100 and, if the result is less than or equal to this figure, the adventurers locate a merchant with a cargo to sell. 2. Type of Cargo If the place where the cargo is being picked up has a particular type of bulk goods listed in the Source of Wealth column of the Gazetteer, then this is the type of cargo on offer. Where more than one commodity is listed, each commodity has an equal chance of being the cargo. If the place has no bulk goods listed in the Gazetteer, either select a cargo or generate randomly from the Cargo Table. Cargo Table Make a note of the cargo type, the volume modifier, and the base price. Notes: *Ore and Metal: A cargo of ore comprises unprocessed lumps of raw material, usually straight from the mine; a metal cargo comprises ingots of the purified metal. In the table above, both categories are assumed to be iron; if you with to use other metals, consult the following table: :: The price before the slash is for ore, that after the slash is for refined metal. *Luxuries: This category is basically a catch-all for those items only produced in specific locales (e.g., pottery, glass, bricks) and genuine, imported luxuries (e.g., spices, silks, etc.). *Wine: The prices given for wine are maximum and minimum; the better the wine, the higher the cost. Better wine will generally move in smaller units than lower quality wine, so the larger the cargo, the lower the quality. 3. Size of Available Cargo For the purposes of these rules, the size of a cargo is measured in Encumbrance Points. To determine how many Encumbrance Points of cargo is available, use the following procedure:' 'S'' x 5D10, where ''S is the Trade Sales Constant of the locale from the Gazetteeer, rounding to the nearest 100 Encumbrance Points. This figure is then multiplied by the Volume Modifier from the Cargo Table, to take seasonal factors into account. 3.1 Trading Centres: If a place is listed in the Gazetteer as deriving its wealth from trade, the amount of available cargo is doubled. 4. Base Prices To determine the base price of a cargo, consult the Cargo Table. 4.1 Wine: The base price of a cargo of wine will depend on the quantity available. As a rough guide, once you know the amount available, consult the following table: ♦ Base Price is per 100 encumbrance points. 4.2 Random Factor: The base price is then modified by a random factor, as follows: 5. Haggling Once the type, size, and base price of the cargo has been established, the adventurers may negotiate with the vendor over the price. The character doing the bargaining must first make a standard Bargain test, modified by Haggle and other appropriate skills. Failure means that the NPC merchant will not reduce the original price. If the test is successful, you should make a secret WP test for the NPC (again modified by any applicable skills). If this is successful, the price will be reduced by D10%, but no more. If the test is failed, the price will be reduced by a percentage equal to the amount by which the test is failed, up to a maximum of 30% (i.e., if the merchant has a WP of 41 and rolls 84, the price will still only be reduced by 30%). If you wish to avoid the trouble of generating a new NPC merchant for each trading session or the monotony of using the same one over and over again, the WP of a typical small merchant is 31-35 - you may use 30 + 2D10 to determine this or select a score, as you prefer. If the adventurers cannot afford or do not wish to purchase the entire cargo, the base price per 100 encumbrance points should be increased by 10%, to compensate the merchant for the inconvenience of splitting the load. Note that this will not apply when it comes to selling the cargo. Selling Once the adventurers have a cargo, they may try to sell it at any place they come to. For this, they need to know whether there is a demand for the cargo and how much will be offered. Demand There will be no demand for bulk goods in a village, although, at your discretion, the villagers may buy part of the cargo (D6 x 100 Encumbrance Points or select a quantity for yourself). A place will not normally have a demand for a commodity which it produces itself. Except in the case of wine, it will not be possible to sell a cargo in a place which is listed in the Gazetteer as producing that commodity. In the case of wine, only fine wine (base price of 10 GCs or greater per 100 encumbrance points) can be sold. A place which has Trade listed as a source of wealth in the Gazetteer is not subject to this rule and all goods may be traded there freely. To calculate demand, use the following procedure: B'' x 3D6, where ''B is the Trade Buying Constant of the locale (from the Gazetteer). This gives a base percentage chance, which the adventurers must test against, with the following modifiers: *If the place has Trade listed as a source of wealth: +30 *If one of the characters has Haggle skill: +10 *Seasonal factors - according to the Volume Modifier. The final figure is the percentage chance that the adventurers can find a merchant interested in buying the cargo. Whether the price will be acceptable to the PCs is, of course, a different matter entirely. Price If there is a demand for the cargo, the adventurers must fix a selling price. First, the prospective buyer will estimate the value of the cargo. To save time, you may decide that the NPC will automatically be able to judge the cargo's value to within 5%. Alternatively, make an Estimate test for the buyer - for most merchants, this will be in the range of 41-71 (choose a value or use 40 + 3D10). If the test is successful, the merchant will estimate the value of the cargo to within +/-5% of its base price. If the test is failed, the merchant's estimate will be wrong by 5 + D10%. In either case, this is the base offer which the merchant will make for the cargo. Once the base offer has been made, the adventurers may bargain, using the same procedure as for buying. This time, however, the price will increase. When both sides agree to a price, the sale is made and the buyer has the cargo unloaded and put into a warehouse. Category:Rules Category:World Guide